A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry
A look at history and popular culture
This is the fifth and final part of our series (I, II, IIIa, IIIb, IVa, IVb, IVc, IVd,IVe, V) looking at the structures of life for pre-modern peasant farmers and showing how historical modeling can help us explore the experiences of people who rarely leave much evidence of their day-to-day personal lives. I've been stressing … Continue reading Collections: Life, Work, Death and the Peasant, Part V: Life In Cycles
Hey folks, Fireside this week! The new semester is starting up next week, so things may be a little more fireside-y than usual over the next few weeks, but I do promise we will get to the end of "Life, Work, Death and the Peasant" eventually. That said, since I am teaching Latin rather than … Continue reading Fireside Friday, August 15, 2025 (On Latin Pronunciation)
This is the first part of the third part of our series (I, II, IIIa, IIIb, IVa, IVb, IVc, IVd,IVe, V) discussing the patterns of life of the pre-modern peasants who made up the great majority of all humans who lived in our agrarian past and indeed a majority of all humans who have ever … Continue reading Collections: Life, Work, Death and the Peasant, Part IIIa: Family Formation
This week at long last we come to the clash of men and horses as we finish our three-part (I, II, III) look at the iconic opening battle scene from the film Gladiator (2000). Last time, we brought the sequence up through the infantry advance, observing that the tactics of the Roman arrow barrage and … Continue reading Collections: Nitpicking Gladiator’s Iconic Opening Battle, Part III
This week we're continuing our three-part (I) look at one of film's most famous Roman battle sequences, the iconic opening battle from Gladiator (2000). I had planned this to be in two parts, but even though this sequence is relatively short, it provides an awful lot to talk about. As noted last week, this iconic … Continue reading Collections: Nitpicking Gladiator’s Iconic Opening Battle, Part II
This week, we're going to take a close look at arguably the most famous and recognizable Roman battle sequence in film: the iconic opening battle from Gladiator (2000). Despite being a relatively short sequence (about ten minutes), there's actually enough to talk about here that we're going to split it over two weeks, talking about … Continue reading Collections: Nitpicking Gladiator’s Iconic Opening Battle, Part I
This week we're going to do something a bit silly, in part because I have to prepare for and travel to an invited workshop/talk event later this week and so don't have quite the time for a more normal 'full' post and in part because it is fun to be silly sometimes (and we might … Continue reading Collections: Alexander Goes West (A Silly Counterfactual)
This week, we're going to talk a bit about the brothers Tiberius (trib. 133) and Gaius (trib. 123-2) Gracchus, the famous Roman reformers of the late second century. There's actually a fair bit to say about both of them, so we're going to split this treatment over two weeks, talking about Tiberius this week and … Continue reading Collections: On the Gracchi, Part I: Tiberius Gracchus
Coming off of some of the discussion of Gladiator II (I, II), this week I want to discuss the place of 'bread and circuses' in the narrative of Roman decadence and decline. This is one of those phrases which long ago entered the standard lexicon, but which gets used and interpreted in a range of … Continue reading Collections: On Bread and Circuses
Last week, we started our nitpicking of Gladiator II (2024) by looking at the problems with the films chronology and its portrayal of the Roman army of the early third century, both in its equipment and in its battle tactics. This week, we're going to move forward to the main action of the film, set … Continue reading Collections: Nitpicking Gladiator II, Part II